No One Was Hurt

A large fire started outside of our supply pods today. Last week, we had piled about 300 boxes of medical supplies together to donate to another Forward Surgical Team that is just starting up. The truck was going to take them at about 1100; the fire occured at about 0100. It looks like the fire started outside and then heated the metal walls of the container enough to ignite our own supplies inside. Luckily, no one was hurt, the fire did not spread to the ambulances parked 10 feet away, and we are still able to care for patients.

Investigators are still trying to determine how it started. The fire started in the middle of the night, in 19 degree temperatures, away from any electrical equipment. So one of their first questions was, "who did you tick off recently?" All of us immediately thought of the soldier who showed up last weekend too drunk to stand, but drunk enough to pull out his weapon and aim it at the Polish medics who brought him to us. Something like that gets you a date with the MPs and the base commander. As cute as it seems on MASH, having a distillery in your room is really not that endearing when you carry automatic weapons around.

Hopefully the fire was just a freak accident.

***update: The fire marshal found an IV fluid warmer battery that was melted, and he thinks that was the source of the fire. Sounds weird to we that a battery sitting on a shelf for months decided to spontaneously combust, but his guess is better than mine.